Manifestation

Chapter 6

"... What happened to me?

When Zen opened his eyes again, he found himself in an unfamiliar place.

He wasn't in a hospital room or anything like that. He was not even lying down on a bed. Contrary to that, he seemed to be floating in the air.

It was like he was in some sort of dream.

His mind felt blank, like there were no thoughts in it. There was no strength in his body either. At the same time, there wasn't even a sense of exhaustion, as if he wasn't even alive.

But he could clearly see where he was.

Zen blinked his eyes in surprise and astonishment as he looked around his surroundings.

It was like he was standing on the boundary of the universe, The end of the horizon that people speak about. There was no feeling of air, sun, trees, plants, not a single sign of life or anything relative.

When he looked below, the whole world seemed to be dyed in white.

As far as his eyes could see, there was only a plain white ground. Zen wondered if he had really died and was in heaven or a place similar to it, but there was no real answer to this question.

He just kept staring at the endless space dyed in white.

"Weird… Where am i?"

He muttered with a voice that seemed as lifeless as his body.

His vision which was wandering around stopped in front of him.

Suddenly, the plain white ground distorted, a part of it started changing its shape as if a clay was getting molded.

Slowly, that part rose in the air and distorted more and more, seemingly trying to take a form. Soon, it turned into a shape that looked similar to that of a crown, a dazzling white crown.

It looked like a crown that even the greatest of the kings and emperors will covet.

But it wasn't over yet.

The space around Zen suddenly started pouring down into the crown mold and covered it all over.

Zen just kept staring at it and after a while, the phenomenon stopped and the white mold became a real crown made out of rusty bronze.

Then immediately the bronze surface started cracking, as if the skin was getting peeled. Then, a brilliant crown appeared in front if Zen.

It was the true shape of the crown.

Around 3 meters in height and 4 meters in width. The typical crown design with it's whole body made out of 'space' and a pointed tip.

There was white wavelike energy spreading throughout its body every now and then, and a whirlpool of space was gathering on the tip like a black hole.

The whirlpool grew in size and started spinning in reverse while emitting a bright light which hurt Zen's eyes.

He put out his hand in front of his face to block the light and through the space between his fingers, he kept staring at the mystical scene in front of him.

The light soon came together and started hardening into a form. This time, it wasn't a crown, but the shape was of a human figure.

"What is going on…"

Zen muttered as the light finally calmed down in the form of a silhouette.

The silhouette was of a man, but he was so mesmerising and elegant looking that Zen nearly misunderstood him as a woman.

The features of that man were sharp yet gentle and he had an indescribable softness in his eyes that seemed to be staring hard at him.

Moreover, his body seemed to be made entirely of light, as Zen was able to see through him.

His clothes were simple with blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a white jacket on top of it. The weird thing was the gentlemanly hat that seemed to unusually blend in with the clothes really well.

The man looked at Zen for a while, various emotions that he wasn't able to understand passing through his eyes.

Then, he finally opened his mouth.

"We finally meet. You seem to be confused, but well, that's common."

The man's voice was gentle as his appearance, but it had an ethereal feeling to it. Though at the same time, there was also a hint of excitement in his voice.

"Who are you?"

Zen asked while still sitting between the crossroad of amazement and confusion at the phenomenon that had happened in front of his eyes.

"Who am I? Well, that's something even I don't really know, but you can call me Arthor."

"How do you know me and where am I?"

The man, no, Arthor's words had clearly hinted that he knew him from before and his eyes seemed to twinkle at Zen’s question.

"This place… umm, you can just call it my home. But this place doesn't really matter aside from the fact it connects both of us. As for why I know you, it's because I am the one who has been taking away all of your mana since childhood. It seems like you went through a lot because of that."

"What mana?"

Zen wasn't able to understand what the man was talking about and his words seemed like a mystery to him.

"Umm… it seems like you are still confused. Well, it's fine. You will get to know everything gradually. For now, I just wanted to meet you once because we are finally connected now."

Excitement oozed out front Arthor's words, but his demeanour was calm and collected. It led to Zen being more and more confused.

He seemed to have forgotten his rational approach after going through lots of things in such a small span of time. His blanked mind also didn't help in this situation.

Unbeknownst to this, Arthor continued.

"I know you have many questions in your mind and I'm really sorry to make you go through such a tough childhood, but believe me, I did it because it was necessary to do so… for the future."

"I don't understand what you-"

"I would love to tell you everything, but It seems like the time is up. Your family is getting more and more worried for you and this is the time for you to return."

Arthor said and waved his hands suddenly, seemingly doing everything on his whim. Zen's eyes started blackening after that, like his body was forcefully closing them.

'Ugh I feel like vomiting…'

He thought and everything faded away.

Standing alone, Arthor smiled at the disappearing silhouette of Zen and mumbled in a soft, low tone.

“Until next time… my friend."

* * *

"Huhhh!"

Zen woke up with a jolt.

His whole body was cold and his back seemed to be drenched with a lot of sweat. His vision seemed to be blurry and only after focusing for a while that he was able to take a look at his surroundings.

'Where am I? What happened to me? Am I even alive?'

These types of questions dawned on his mind like continuous gunshots.

It was only after a while that he calmed down and was able to think rationally about the situation he was in.

Memories flooded in his mind as he finally realised what had gone on with him. From his unlucky death to being kidnapped. Everything became more and more clear to him with every passing second.

'My father probably saved me from the kidnappers. But what was that dream? Who was that guy?'

Zen thought as he tried to feel his heart rate.

It didn't seem like his body was close to dying now. Although he still didn't feel too good, it was still better than before.

At least he won't die with a kick now.

"... This is my room."

Zen muttered as he saw the familiar sight of his room. More accurately, this was the bedroom of the guy whose body Zen was occupying currently.

Due to the memories and feelings he had received, the sight of this room didn't feel too unfamiliar to him.

The room was decorated in an exaggerated manner and it made him feel like he was in the house of a noble from medieval Europe. All sorts of expensive furniture was on display and just this room was way bigger than his whole apartment.

'Nobles sure are rich.'

Zen thought as his eyes wandered around the room.

At that moment, he suddenly heard footsteps and the door to the room slowly opened, like the person opening it didn't want to make much noise.

It opened fully to reveal a girl with a sharp chin and chocolatey brown hair. She was wearing a maid outfit and her cat-like sharp eyes blinked at him with an indescribable gaze. Just few moments after she made her appearance, a shout reverberated from her small mouth.

"Young master… You are finally AWAKE!!"

Before Zen can think of an appropriate response, his upper body was embraced by the breast of the brown haired girl.

He hadn't noticed before, but her breasts were more than enough to suffocate him, especially because he wasn't fully recovered yet.

'Am I going to die by suffocation now?'

Zen struggled to get out of the embrace of the brown haired girl, but she seemed to be overcome with emotions as even tears were spilling from her eyes.

It was only after a few minutes that she finally calmed down and released him from her embrace.

With tears still on her face, she looked at Zen.

"Young master, how… How are you now? I was so worried for you when you were kidnapped… I thought I… I will never see you again…"

"I understand, but first calm down… Anna."

Zen said as he remembered the name of the maid - Annabelle. She was the person who had been with Zen since childhood and his personal maid.